


I Hope You Smiled

by RottenAdel



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: A spin on the fan theory, Angst, Child Experimentation, Gen, Major Spoilers, Medical Experimentation, Minor Character Death, Needles, POV Minor Character, Supernatural Illnesses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 05:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9220928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RottenAdel/pseuds/RottenAdel
Summary: A tale of Prompto's origin, told from the eyes of who would know it best.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This may be proven inaccurate as more information comes out, but as of right now, I'm rolling with the fan theory. Please enjoy the fic that I cried while writing.

I couldn’t really explain what came over me back then.

Perhaps it was his charisma, his grace, the sheer power of knowledge and the unyielding pursuit. Things someone like me could only ever aspire to. Whichever it was, I had become completely and utterly starstruck by him and everything that he hoped to gain. It started as idol worship -- maybe that’s all it ever was -- but when he would turn my way and address me by name, to smile, to even acknowledge my presence...as a researcher, there was no greater reward. And as a person, I was falling head over heels. With that man? Maybe. With the ideals he proclaimed to stand for? Definitely.

I suppose it was only a matter of time before things escalated. He proposed a project, a new way for us to progress through our research. He wished for me to assist him in a way that no one else could. I would claim that I fully understood the possible consequences, the ultimate outcome, but I think back then I was too wrapped up in the mere idea of being useful to this man whom I had come to adore to really understand. I think he knew that of me, which was why it was so easy for him to get what he wanted out of our partnership.

Volunteering myself for the sake of research...What would my parents think of me? I did not care, nor did I readily offer the particulars of the project. It wasn’t as though I could even fully articulate what all was happening. I only knew of that white room, the monitors and lights all around me, and him standing above with a grin that at the time I thought was of adoration. It was, I came to find, but not for me, but for what I would produce. Adoration for his craft, his endless pursuit of knowledge.

“If this succeeds, we will be able to apply this technology to our future soldiers. Our work will benefit our kingdom for generations to come.” He would say as he pat my hand, the pain wracking my body from the injections. He never gave a name to the substance, just that it was given to him by a fellow researcher. A worldly man that I had only met at parties. He had more charisma than my love, but there was always something unsettling about him. There was something unsettling about my love back then as well, but...Oh, perhaps I was too blind to see it.

The months went on and so did the pain with it. Test after test to see if the life that was blooming within me was holding up against the battery of chemicals I was receiving. Each time I would I would see you on the screen I would hold my breath and saw a small prayer to the Astrals that you were growing normally, that you, my precious child, would be the future that he so desperately pursued.

Each time you were there, growing like a normal, healthy boy. Each time I would nearly cry with relief.

It was only natural for a mother to grow attached to her child. As I neared the date in which you were to be born I asked my love again and again what would come next. What would become of my child and myself once you were born. It was then that he grew cold, distant. He stopped looking at me with adoration and instead with disdain. “Your hair is falling out.” He said to me, “Your complexion is poor and you’re wasting away. After this, I cannot rely on you for continued research.”

I could only stare at him. Yes, I knew that I didn’t have the glow that I once had. I knew that with each injection I was growing more and more sick. I wasn’t blind to the black spots or my hair growing thin, or how I could just barely hold down food anymore. But I had pressed on. I was able to go to work. I was able to carry on the tasks asked of me. And my child -- my beautiful growing son -- was still healthy. Was this not what he wanted? Was my love so repulsed by my weakness that he would cast me aside once his son was born?

Looking back, I should have run then. I should have left Niflheim and crossed the border into neutral territory. Tenebrae would shelter an ailing refugee mother. Even Insomnia would...I still had relatives there, though with the tensions we had not spoke in an age. There was hope still then...

But I stayed. I wanted to believe that things would turn around. I wanted...I wanted to prove to my love that I could still be of use.

I still remember the day you were born. It was...painful. More painful than anything I had ever experienced to that day. But I thought nothing of it. I was bringing my beloved child into this world that would be better for his existence in more ways than one. Better for me, for I could finally hold my beloved son in my arms, and better for my love, for he could finally see his work come to fruition.

When I first laid eyes on you I cried tears of joy. I smiled bigger than I had in months. You were beautiful; tufts and blond and rosy cheeks. I cried even more the first time I held you swaddled in my arms.

The nurse asked for a name for records.

“Prompto. Prompto Besithia.”

The pain didn’t matter anymore. The months of injections and sickness, the admonishing glares from my love...None of that mattered anymore. I had you in my arms and for that brief moment I was happy beyond words.

The moment ended too soon.

“Take him to the lab.”

“What?”

I felt hand a hand on my shoulder, what was once a comfort was now a source of terror as I watched the same nurse pull you from my arms. I reached for you, asked where they were taking you, what was happening. My baby, my precious Prompto--

“It is merely the next stage in my grand design.”

I had never heard my love’s voice so cold. I tried to struggle away from the grip, only to feel the nausea and weakness that I had become so accustomed to during these long months come over me. I could feel myself fading, too exhausted from the labor and illness both to keep fighting...but I continued. I continued to pull away, to reach for you. I didn’t want them to take you from me! I fought as hard as I could, but in the end...

It wasn’t until I came to that I finally began to understood what my love had in store for me. His grand design, the plan for the future of Magitek research...what he had done to me and in turn you...

Looking back, I realize the flaw in my judgment. The love he had displayed had been nothing more than a ploy to gain my cooperation. I felt ashamed and disgusted with myself. How could I have been so blind? Those honeyed words and endless promises of a brighter future for our kingdom -- for mankind! -- had all been a ruse to gain my trust. I had allowed myself to suffer and for him to subject my unborn child to cruelties that I didn’t understand until far later. And to what end? To lay sick, dying of a disease that the researchers hardly understood, with the echoes of my child’s cries ringing in my ears when there was only silence. No matter how much I screamed, how much I struggled and fought against the nurses who were assigned to watch me -- no, not nurses, researchers like me -- they would not let me see you.

Day by day, week by week, I grew weaker. Isolated as I was I began to wonder what would become of you if I were to perish. The people here...they would not treat you like the darling child that I had hoped to see in this world. To them, you were only an experiment. To him...your father, if I would even dare to call him that...you were nothing more than a means to an end.

The bright future I had imagined for the both of us was dimming with each passing day.

I could not tell you how much time had passed. I was tired, weak, the day and night blended together in a blur of check-ins and blood tests. Yet through the pain all I could think of was you, my darling son. How you were alone without your mother to comfort you.

At that point they must’ve thought me harmless, for a careless nurse left my door ajar. Even if the fog I could see there was a chance for me to make my escape, to find you and leave this wretched place behind. I hardly had the ability to stand, but even so I forced myself from the only room I had known for months on end and down the hall. No guards, no researchers, just the endless corridors that I had walked so many times when I was well, when I mattered.

I found you alone, laying in a bassinet of wires and monitors. You had grown much in my absence. The rosy cheeks peppered with freckles, the tufts of blond grown long as no one likely felt the need to trim them. I felt elation in seeing you alive, and sorrow seeing that the bandages wrapped around your little limbs, the tubes providing you sustenance in absence of myself. But you were alive and I cried in joy for you.

I still do not know why no one tried to stop me. I didn’t care. I simply held you in my arms for the first time and swaddled you in the only blanket you had been given. There was no one around to stop us. We could leave. We could be free--

And so I walked. I walked away from Niflheim, the only home I had ever known. No money, no food, nothing of value save for the flimsy robes that I had been given to wear during my imprisonment. But I was determined still to get you someplace safe. I knew...I knew that I had not much time left in this world. I could already feel the disease taking over me, warping my senses and changing my worn body. Whatever was to happen to me, whatever I was to become...I did not want you to witness it. I wanted better for you, my precious Prompto. I did not wish for you to become a monster.

Through the kindness of strangers I made my way from one outpost to the next, begging food and favors for a dying mother and her child. Bit by bit we made our way across the desolate country and towards the only place I could think that you would be safe from him and those who would seek the harm you.

By the time I approached the border, I was already fading. Losing the battle against the strange black illness that you had somehow been spared from. Feet bloodied, limbs weak, barely able to stand...I continued. We were so close, so close to safety, to freedom...

“No refugees without papers, ma’am.”

“But I’ve come all this way...!”

The guards held fast to their orders. A final slap in the face. I cared not his reasoning, the damnable politics behind it. All I could see was that after traveling all this way, a mere guard wished to stop me from delivering you safe. If I had the strength I would have lashed out and demanded to be allowed through. But I could barely see, let alone fight. I had pushed myself past my limit in our journey and I feared I my body would soon give out whether you were safe or not. I wept, begging the guard to allow us through, or at the very least to allow me to take you someplace safe--

“What’s the trouble?”

The authoritative tone, so much like his had been, but softer somehow. A man approached clad in black with four soldiers in tow. The guard straightened upon seeing him, throwing up a salute. “Sir, I have informed this woman she is not to pass into the city without papers, but she--”

A single wave of his hand and the guard was silenced. I looked up at him, so shaky on my feet, you clutched to my chest...and he looked upon me with a kindness that I had not known in years. True kindness, that of a saint, or a benevolent ruler. “Miss, is what the guard says true?”

I nodded, throat dry, shaking as I spoke. “Yes, but please...I-I’ve only come to deliver my son to my relatives. If you will not allow me into the city for refuge, then please...” My voice broke and I began to weep again. So weak, so frail, but I couldn’t just give up...

“Please allow my son passage.”

The man watched me closely, as if his eyes were searching for something in my own. I wish I could have seen him more clearly, for I’m sure he looked like an angel. To look upon me whom was sickly and frail with such eyes...

“To where do you intend to take your son?” He asked, voice soft, yet commanding.

“To the Argentums that reside within Insomnia. Relatives of my mother. Please...Please allow me to take Prompto to them...”

The man looked to be considering this when the guard interjected. “Sir, this woman...She is of Niflheim. We believe that she is dise--”

Another wave of the hand and the guard was silenced. So he could tell that I was dying. Perhaps he knew more of what was happening to me than I did myself.

The man nodded to me and opened his arms. “Then I will deliver him to them.”

“Sir, what if it’s a ploy? Niflheim is not above sending beggars to--”

“Know your place, young man.” The man ordered and the guard ducked his head.

“My apologies, my lord, but...”

The man paid him no mind, merely opened his arms to me in waiting. I was unsure at first -- this man, could he truly be trusted? -- but so weak was I that I felt I had no choice. My vision was failing, yet I was able to gaze upon you once more. I cuddled you close, kissed your sleeping face as I cried anew. “Thank you...” My voice was barely above a whisper, but I felt it was enough. I reached into the tattered blanket you were wrapped in and held your tiny hand. I kissed the freckles upon your cheek, the blond tufts of hair, the bandages around your wrist and cried. This was it, this was the end of our journey together. I knew I could never hope to see you grow, but I thought at least with this that I could give you a chance at a better life.

I kissed your forehead once more and uttered my goodbyes before giving you over to that man’s arms.

“Please...Please see that he arrives safe...”

The man nodded, smiling kindly. I thought if that man’s smile as he held my son was the last thing I would see...then it would be enough.

I watched as that man walked through the gate with his entourage in tow. I knew not whom he was or where he had come from, but I felt that someone who had gained such respect from the people guarding this city must be someone honorable indeed. You would be safe, cherished, and held soon enough.

  
Prompto...My dear Prompto...Were you held close by those I sent you to? Were you raised with love and care, cherished as if you were their own? Did you grow strong and confident regardless of your origins? Did you overcome your hardships and be a better man than what they bred you for? Did you find friends, love, a meaning to your existence?

I found myself thinking of this as I wandered the desert landscape like an animal looking for a pleasant place to die. And dying I was. Losing the battle to the sickness, my body rebelling against me. I wept black as I thought of you, my body moving of its own accord. I was not long for the world, and yet...I was happy knowing that you would live on even without me.

I prayed that you would live to be more than what he wanted you to be. I prayed that you would be a good man, a strong man, of heart and mind. A lawful one that could smile...

Prompto, my dear Prompto...I hoped you smiled.

 

* * *

 

“There she is, that’s her!”

_Prompto, my dear Prompto..._

“Do something, Noct!”

_You’re here...and your friends..._

“Don’t ask me, do it yourself!”

_You did grow strong, didn’t you...?_

“My...My baby...Where...”

_I can’t see...I can’t see you...But...It’s you...Isn’t it...?_

“I know where your baby is.”

_You...that man...oh, you feel just like that man..._

“That would mean...You took him...!”

_I’m sorry, Prompto...Your mother...Your mother is strange now..._

“Ugh! Whatever that is, it’s disgusting!”

_Disgusting...yes...I know...What I’ve become..._

“Quit your crying!”

_Don’t cry, Prompto. It’s okay...It’s okay..._

“Bring back...my baby...”

_Mommy’s here..._


End file.
